Saturday may have been the 30th day of the month, but it might have been mistaken by some for July 4. Quite a few rockets exploded of the bats of Bonny Eagle’s 14-year-old all-stars, as they pounded out 30 hits in two games in Babe Ruth state tournament play at Westbrook’s Warren Field.

The host team witnessed the majority of the fireworks, as Bonny Eagle eliminated Westbrook, 13-2, in the first contest of the afternoon. Later, Central Maine held on for a 7-6 win to end Bonny Eagle’s season.

With one out in the first inning and Josh Ruby on third – the result of an error and two stolen bases – Bonny Eagle’s DJ Hodgdon tripled deep over Westbrook centerfielder Tyler Kelly’s head to put his team on the board early. It would be the first of seven extra base hits for the squad.

Rich Harvey followed Hodgdon’s shot with a triple of his own, scoring his teammate. The duo would repeat the rare feat of back-to-back triples again in the sixth inning.

Down 4-0 as they came to bat, it looked like Westbrook would produce some offensive pyrotechnics of their own when they loaded the bases, but pitcher Ryan Nason struck out the side to escape a jam he created by walking two batters and hitting another with a pitch.

The home team loaded the bases again in the second. This time Pat Webber singled in two runs, but the rally ended when the catcher tried to stretch his hit into a double.

After Kelly singled to start the third, Nason found his groove and retired 11 of the last 14 batters.

“Nason didn’t have his best control today,” said Bonny Eagle manager Will Sanborn, “but he fought through it and chewed up some innings for us. At this point in the tournament pitching is at a premium, so it’s nice to have a guy finish a game.”

Meanwhile, Sanborn’s sluggers scored four more runs in the third, a pair in the fifth and, finally, they added three in the sixth. Harvey finished the game with two triples, a double, three runs and two RBI, while Hodgdon also had three hits, scored twice and knocked in two.

“They hit the ball a ton today,” said Westbrook right fielder Mike Anthony. “We weren’t fielding as good as we should have, and our bats didn’t come alive. We left too many people on.”

“They’re a real good hitting team,” said Anthony’s manager, Mike Russell, of his opponents. “Our pitchers couldn’t get in the groove.”

The three to seven spots in Bonny Eagle’s line-up were a combined 14-for-19, as Travis Dunn and Chris Guillereault also had three hits.

“Right through the heart of our order we hit the ball well,” Sanborn said, “and right to the gaps. It’d be nice to save some of those for later on, when we might need them.”

Bonny Eagle was able to follow up their 19-hit performance with another 11 hits against Central Maine, but it wasn’t enough.

Five hits in the top of the first, including Hodgdon’s third triple of the day, led to a 3-0 edge for Bonny Eagle, but Central Maine made a pitching change after the opening frame that was a factor in more ways than one.

Dave Miles took the mound for the Waterville/ Winslow-based team and let up just three runs the rest of the way. Cam Omsberg, who Miles replaced, went to shortstop and made a play that might have saved the game for his team.

Curt Chaput homered for Central Maine in the second to get his team’s offense going, and the game went back and forth with the score 6-6 going into the seventh.

Hodgdon then came through again, leading off the top of the inning with a single and Harvey stepped in and hit the ball up the middle, off Miles’ glove. Omsberg came far to his left, dove to come up with the ball and tossed it sideways to second for the force.

Bonny Eagle’s rally sputtered after that and Central Maine scored the game winner in the bottom half of the inning.

Ruby said that it would have “been a different game” if Omsberg had not come up with that ball.

“We probably would have scored,” the center fielder said, “and that would have given us momentum going into the last inning.”

Portland won the state 14-year-old title Saunday by beating Central Maine, 11-1.